PARATY
June 25 – July 5
We are on the move again to the best sailing grounds in
Brazil with many islands.
This is the
first time in 2 months of marinas, boat yards, etc. that we have felt like we
are in the Bahamas –we are now in Tropical Brazil. Think diving, snorkeling,
beach walking, hiking, less clothing. AND we have left the state of Sao Paulo
and are now in the state of RIO DE JANEIRO.
My new challenge is keeping food fresh, fruits free of flying
creatures.
Even being diligent about
cleaning vegies and fruits I still managed to get the “revenge”, first time for
me.
We pull into a rolling anchorage, blah, and drop the
hook. We just make it into a depth that
works for us before approaching the fishing nets that are on either side of the
cove. Marc wants to re-set the anchor
and the windlass is inoperable. Another
boat problem to deal with. Marc is
manually pulling up the anchor the next morning and a “local” from the island
motors by and comes aboard to help.
We head to Baia Paraty where there are 5 marinas, arriving
mid-day. Our friend, Ghia from Santos,
calls the Marina do Engenho, built by one of Brazil’s best known sailors, Amyr
Klink an Antarctic explorer, photographer and writer, and we now have a
mechanic onboard. Why is it always the
weekend? Marc and Flavio survey the
issues and then head into town for parts and I go ashore to work on blogs and
emails. We had needed a mechanic for the
windlass, (back protection) and wouldn’t you know ?, Flavio came aboard and all
of a sudden it was working; but it’s a
flag that will have to be dealt with. He
gets the bow thruster working; we hope it lasts ($$$$$). We walk out to the
main road to the bus stop, but stick our thumbs out instead and hitch a ride to
the “multi-market” to replenish our perishables and take a taxi back. (Marc falls back on his hitchhiking
experience from the sixties and puts Pati out on the road with her hip slightly
extended and voila we get a ride!)
We are supposed to
have 4 days of sunny weather followed by rain so we head out to explore the
islands, ahh relaxation at last. The numerous islands and fjords make for great
cruising and thus there are many, many tourist boats of all sizes (at least it
is off-season). We anchor off a “resort”
of sorts because there are yellow floats surrounding a beach with lots of signage
that says “RESTRINGADO”. Next morn we
launch the “probe” (our name for the dinghy christened by my star trek fan) to
explore the Saco de Mamanagua. There is
a mountain above the village that looks like a “KING Penguin” so that is what
we name it. The snorkeling location we
were given was too turbulent and cloudy so we forfeited that event and head up
the fjord and find a local fishing boat and score 4 fish (corvinas) for $20
Reis, thats about $6. Pati filets 2 and preps 2 for later steaming with garlic
and vegies. YUM YUM YUM.
We continue to head up the Saco de Mamanagua in the dinghy
to the end @ high tide and head up RIO Cairucu thru mangrove swamps that lead
to tropical forests. We leave the dinghy
and hike up a marked trail, thru a few farming plots of the Tamoios Indians
(bananas, papayas, grapes, coconuts), that leads to the waterfall (agua de
foz). Marc is elated to jump into the pool and have a head pounding experience
under the falls. Must be something about
this experience as I remember the end of a massage in India where they pounded
on your head- kind of like shock therapy perhaps-go figure- he enjoyed it
thoroughly. (Marc explains it as
loosening up the grey matter in a male brain where over time it sticks together
due to linear thinking of a male’s hard wiring…the on-off switch. It therefore must be unstuck by the effects
of a waterfall-sort of like a Jacuzzi for the brain. )
After 4 days, and expected rain, we return to Marina Engenho
to finalize the work on the bow thruster that was still having problems- final
analysis, it is a solenoid problem that we will have to deal with later (on
again/off again). We have a new anchorage buddy, a 47’ Catana catarmaran with a
family of 4 from Russia, children ages 6 and 4 and of course they have boat
issues too…go figure…once again the spiritual incantation of a sailor..
Cruising is the art of repairing your boat in beautiful places around the
world.
While I cannot speak
Portugese , it is similar to Spanish
and
I can understand a little.
Ie: sin
means
without (sp)
sem means without (Port).
Marc however thinks it’s a derivative of
Yiddish since everyone is always saying “Oi” (hello) just like “Oiy” without
the “Vey”.
THE COLONIAL TOWN OF PARATY
Originally inhabited by the Goianas and Tamoios Indians, the
Portuguese arrived in the 16
th century.
It was a vital port of call, as slaves were
disembarked here to work the plantations, and it was the end of the gold and
gemstone route (Camino do
Ouro) a track
across the mountains from the inner regions of the country (state of Minas
Gerais). The abolition of slavery in the 18
th century and creation
of new routes for transporting gold resulted in the decline of the town.
Today, the town’s colonial architecture
remains intact and it is a Brazilian Heritage site and Unesco World Heritage
Site. The old city was built at sea level; it is partly flooded during high
tides and completely flooded in spring tides.
The receding waters on the falling tide were originally used to clean
the streets and acted as a sanitation system, with the slope of the ground
carefully calculated so that there isn’t even the slightest puddle at low tide.
The houses were built raised up by two
steps so that water didn’t run inside.
This is the great curiosity of Paraty , and as Marc says , will be it’s
great challenge as the seas rise worldwide.
In less than fifty years they will have a
system that will be cleaning the first floor of their houses.
With a little imagination it could remind you
of Venice.
We finally head to town to visit the OLD CITY.
We
have been told not to bring our dinghy to town due to theft.
Now this infuriates Marc who has decided that
the best theft prevention for an out board motor was to paint it Pink!
So we had it painted in Central America and
repainted
glowing pink in Uruguay.
Marc’s reasoning seems sound: No Latin man in
his right mind would want to be caught with a pink motor.
The problem is this is Brazil and not a Latin
country.
The men wear pink shirts.
They even paint their fishing boats
pink!
This may have something to do with
their open sexual mindedness but Marc’s pink outboard could now be a prize
rather than a curse.
So rather than risk our outboard, we once again put out our
thumb and a couple from the Marina, who just bought a boat and has only been
sailing a year, pick us up. Great
conversation ensues. They are from Sao
Paulo and she is a set designer and he a make-up designer. She is doing a PhD on the making of the film
“The City of God”, about life in the Flavelas of Brazil. She said it was the first Brazilian film to
include black actors, as opposed to the whiter European descendants that are
predominate in films and TV in Brazil. It
inspired us to watch it last evening- a great film. They drop us off and we head out to
explore. It is the weekend of a Literary
Festival where authors, teachers etc. come for workshops and readings
throughout the town for 3 days. We head
to a cultural center that reminds us of 3SArtSpace, but of a smaller version,
check out the art shops and galleries and Marc has located, via Trip Advisor, a
wonderful creperie, Le Casselet, for lunch with a wonderful French singing
guitar player—truly wonderful- Edith Piaf and Chas. Aznavour move over----Marc
recorded and we will send the music to the artist. It is an on again, off again, rainy day and we happen to be there at high tide - so we are
dodging water above and below- luckily no twisted ankles from the cobblestone
streets but it was a challenge. We
return to Paraty the next day, taking the dinghy, and find a local artist to
watch over her. He is a paper mache puppet maker and we purchase a unique
display of Caporeira figures. We enjoy
visiting local art studios, buy some locally made art objects and Pati finds
some wonderful Brazilian made shoes, she buys 2 pair. Marc
has been studying this for many years and still has no clue why a woman has a
fascination for shoes. He beckons any
readers to enlighten him. Pati says, and
as the picture will show, they are very unique, leather and comfortable.
